Unless there is children crying
by Cold 105
Summary: At various points in their lives, the royal family of Arendelle is visited by a strange man in a blue box and his companions.
1. Do you want to build a fractal?

**Author's Notes** : **I'm now trying my hands at a crossover between my favourite TV show and a movie I unexpectedly liked very much.**  
 **The title is a quote from the Doctor Who episode _The beast below_ , which inspired me to write this story. It is actually the first idea I had for a fic after watching _Frozen_.  
Hope you'll have a good read!**

* * *

"Elsa, do you want to build a snowman?"

Elsa cringed on her bed, feeling the temperature drop around her, desperately trying not to hear her sister. She had thought about singing to herself, but was afraid Anna might hear her and take this as an answer.

"Come on, it snowed a lot last night, the courtyard is completely white! We could build a snowman like before!"

Elsa rolled over, considering jamming her fingers into her ears. She knew it never worked anyway, and she would have to remove her gloves for that, which was frightening enough.

"Please, Elsa! I never manage to get Olaf right without you! When was the last time we did it together?"

Elsa finally snapped. She turned toward the door.

"Go away, Anna! I told you I don't want to play! Not today, not ever! I mean it!"

The princess managed to reach the end of her sentence before choking. It was always a mistake to answer. She hated the sound of her own voice when she was shouting at Anna. It was so hard not to let the pain show. More than everything, she hated hearing Anna answering her. She sounded so sad every time…

Elsa braced herself for the answer. That sad little "OK", or "Fine" that Anna let out before leaving. This time however there was only silence. Elsa strained her ear, wondering if she had not gone too far this time, and if she had not just heard a little sob muffled through the door.

Still nothing. Was it a new trick from Anna? She had been trying new plots to entice her sister out of her room recently, but nothing that could not be seen coming from a mile away. Silence was new, though.

Doing her best to move silently, the little princess let herself glide from her bed and inched toward the door, trying to listen for a breathing through the wood. She bit her lip to stop herself from calling her sister. She had to remember what her father was teaching her, concealing, not feeling. But right now she could not help feeling the guilt at the way she had spoken to her little sister.

 _She does not understand. I just want to protect her._

Elsa was now almost against the door, watching the little flowers of frost slowly form on its surface. The gloves protected the things she touched, but they could not do anything when she dropped the temperature of the room. She resisted the urge to peek through the keyhole. She knew Anna loved to do this and she dreaded seeing the eye of her sister waiting for her.

The princess jumped as an unearthly sound suddenly filled the silence. This was not her sister's voice, and she was not sure whether this could be her sister's doing. It sounded like a distant, groaning, wheezing complaint, rising and falling, and getting deeper and louder each time.

Elsa backed away. The sound kept growing, until it stopped with an almost musical chord. Then there was silence again. Elsa put her ear on the door, straining to hear. She thought she heard hinges creaking and people talking, but she could not make out the words clearly. The voices were unknown to her.

The young princess drew a deep breath. She really wanted to know where this noise had come from, but she did not want to fall prey to one of Anna's traps. Then again, she was still concerned about her sister, who she had sent away more brusquely that she had wanted. Maybe she could sneak an eye out, and learn the source of this noise, and at the same time check on Anna or warn her parents to do it.

Curiosity got the better of her. Trying her best to be silent, Elsa turned the door handle, which let out what seemed like a horrible grinding sound in the surrounding silence as the frost-coated latch gave way. Thankfully, the corridor behind the door was indeed empty.

Looking left and right, Elsa allowed herself a few steps outside of her room. Anna was nowhere to be seen or heard. What could be seen however, was a big blue wardrobe standing in the corridor a dozen meters away.

Elsa could not stop herself from moving closer to the incongruous object. She was sure it had not been there yesterday, and besides, it really made no sense to have a wardrobe there.

If it was a wardrobe. The thing had windows, for one thing. There were too high for her, though. Elsa gingerly walked around the strange cabinet. There was something written above the windows, but it made no sense to her. _Police public call box?_

"Hi!"

Elsa jumped against the wall. She felt the temperature around her drop again.

A woman was leaning against the strange box, smiling. She was dark-haired with a round face, and wore a rather short dress with black tights. Elsa vaguely wondered if she had not seen her before. But if she was a stranger…

"Sorry, I did not mean to startle you."

"Don't come closer!" Elsa shouted at the woman, who was looking as though she wanted to walk to her.

"Hey, don't be afraid, I won't hurt you." The woman crouched, bringing herself to eye level with Elsa while remaining on her side of the corridor.

"I'm Clara. What is your name?"

"I'm..." Elsa remembered her father's lessons. "I'm Princess Elsa of Arendelle. What are you doing in the castle?"

The woman's eyes twinkled.

"A princess? I'm honoured to meet you, your Highness."

Elsa could not decide whether the woman was serious or not, but her smile was definitely friendly.

"Did you come to see my… the King?"

"The King? I… don't think so. Should I see him?"

Elsa frowned. She was pretty sure strangers were not supposed to wander in the castle without seeming to be aware of her father. Actually they were not supposed to wander in the castle at all.

"How did you come here? The castle is closed."

"Oh, I came here with… a friend. He has a way with closed doors."

The woman stood up and made a tentative step toward Elsa.

"What is wrong? Are you afraid of something?"

"Don't come closer, please! I don't want to hurt you", Elsa shouted, flattening herself against the wall.

The woman cocked her head quizzically.

"Hurt me? How would you… OK, I'm staying right here. Look, I'm not moving any more. There is no risk of you hurting me if I remain here, right?"

Elsa relaxed a little.

"No I don't… I don't think so."

She glanced at the door of her room, still ajar. She could dash to it and lock the door behind her. This would mean the strange woman would still be at large in the castle, but whoever she was she did not deserve being struck by a stray shot of ice. Nobody did.

"Are you all right? Is something bothering you?"

The woman was looking at her with concern. Elsa began slowly inching toward her door.

"Listen… Elsa, if something or someone is threatening you, I'm sure my friend can help. He's very good for helping people with… special problems. Even problems no one would believe you had."

Elsa looked up. She knew she should be running to the safety of her room, or at the very least try to know if Anna was all right but… if this woman could really help…

"Does your friend know magic?"

The woman frowned, playing with one of her locks.

"You know", she said eventually, smiling, "I would not be surprised if he did." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "Of course he would use some fancy words instead, but it would still be magic."

Elsa hesitated. Her father had told her many times that the trolls in the mountain were the only ones who could help her with her magic, as the knowledge about it had been lost by man a long time ago, and even the trolls could not help her to control it. Even if this strange woman and her mysterious friend had some competence in magic, would they know about her own magic?

"Do you know about magic too?"

"Me? No. Well, I know some party tricks, but I never get them right anyway. And computers. I was really good with computers for a while, but that did not last. That's a kind of magic, I guess. But I don't think your problem is about computers."

Elsa found herself interested despite herself.

"Do you mean… sliding rules? That is not magic… I know how to use them", she added, unable to hide the pride in her voice. "I like mathematics."

The woman made a face.

"Good for you. I never liked that too much. Too strict and formal."

"I like how everything is so orderly with mathematics. They always give the same results from the same problems", Elsa could not stop herself from countering.

"That's one way to look at it, I guess." The woman smiled. "You know, maybe that's why I found all my maths teachers so dull. I've yet to meet one who is not boring me to tears."

"Oh, yes, teachers…" Elsa looked down sadly, reminded of the fact that her own maths teachers were mainly books and her parents, when they had time to teach her something other than etiquette, the duties of a queen, and the political situation of Arendelle.

"Geometry I liked, though", said the woman. Elsa looked up. "I knew how to make killer drawings with only a ruler and a compass."

"Oh, geometry is my favourite! It's everywhere you look! In the buildings, the mountains, the sky…"

"The frost, too", said the woman, showing the wall behind Elsa.

Elsa turned her head to look at the wall against which she had been flattening herself. A thin layer of frost had been slowly covering it, expanding from her.

"It's beautiful…" Elsa started at hearing the voice of the woman suddenly much closer. She had crossed the distance separating them and was concentrating on the frost on the wall. Elsa backed away.

"Please, don't come near me, I will hurt you…"

"You know, I think I remember there is some maths theory about the frost flowers", said the woman, dreamily, still concentrating on the wall. "Something about them being an example of naturally occurring fractals."

"Frac-tals?" asked Elsa, despite herself, still inching slowly away from the woman.

"Yeah. It's some mathematical thing that looks the same when you magnify it. Like snowflakes. Makes some pretty figures to put on T-shirts."

"Oh, so that's why snow is so easy to do" said Elsa almost without thinking. "You only have to show it how to start and it goes on by itself."

The woman turned her head to look at her quizzically.

"That's one way to look at it, I guess. I've never tried to make snow like that before." She smiled. "Did you?"

Elsa backed away.

"Look, I have to go, I should not be there. I'm sorry for the frost!"

"Why should you be sorry? You are not the one doing it, are you?" she asked jokingly. "Besides, I like it."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I like the frost in winter. We are in winter, right?"

Elsa looked at the woman, puzzled. Was she making fun of her or was she really that clueless? You could not ignore the current season, especially with the temperature in the corridor being for once appropriate for winter.

"When I was a little girl around your age I loved to watch frost on the windows and imagine shapes in them. Don't you do that?"

"No", said Elsa hesitantly.

That was not entirely true. She had done that a few times, but it was mostly Anna who liked to discover new shapes in the frost that Elsa created on the windows. They had spend many hours like this, with Elsa creating little patterns of ice and Anna excitedly imagining stories with the shapes she saw in them. In the last two years the only things Elsa had seen in frost had been a ghastly reminder of the danger she was for the people she loved.

"Look, that one looks like a tree. And here, this looks like a leaf", the woman added, in a sadder voice. She turned her head to look at Elsa. "That's strange", she said, "why is there only frost here and where you are… Are you actually doing this?"

Elsa backed away, blubbering apologies. She felt the panic rise again in her. _Conceal, don't feel._

"Wait!" called the woman. "This is beautiful. Are you really doing it? How are you doing that?"

Elsa hesitated. The situation was so unsettling it was hard to remember that she was supposed to lock herself in her room and try controlling her powers. Then again, she was somehow grateful to talk with somebody who was completely unknown for a change.

"I… can. Always could. But I can't control it."

The woman leaned against the defrosting wall.

"Why do you want to control it?" she asked softly.

"I could hurt people with it."

"But you are not hurting anyone with it. Actually I think you are doing beautiful things instead."

"I don't do it on purpose! And it's so easy to hurt people with it!"

The woman slowly sat on the ground, her back against the wall.

"Did you already hurt someone?" Elsa did not answer. The woman spoke softly after a few seconds. "It was an accident, right? Someone close?"

Elsa remained silent, nodding imperceptibly.

"Listen, Elsa", said the woman softly. "Accidents happen. You can hurt people even when it's the last thing you want to do. It can happen when you are trying to do something completely innocent. It can happen when you are trying to do something nice for them. It does not mean you have to stop doing it."

 _But I almost killed my sister. Do you have a sister?_

"Do you understand? What you can do is amazing." The woman smiled. "But I can still ask my friend if he can help you to control it better."

"No, thank you. I think I will go back to my room, now."

"Wait!" called the woman, standing up. She leaned slowly toward Elsa. "Could you make some more frost flowers for me, please? I won't stand too close to you if it helps."

The woman's smile was contagious. Elsa could not stop a half smile to form on her lips as she pressed herself against the wall, watching the frost draw its little pathways as it expanded away from her.

* * *

Anna was slowly advancing in the gallery, glancing sadly at the paintings full of happy people surrounding her. She was trying very hard not to cry but could not stop the occasional sniffle.

"It's not fair!" she said eventually to no one in particular. "The snow was perfect for playing today, like we did before! It would only have been one snowman!"

She stifled a sob, then turned back to look at the painting of the woman on the swing near the door.

"I mean, I know she has to study to be a queen for when she is a grown up, but she does not have to study all the time! She can play some times too!"

Anna looked down, feeling a tear glide on her cheek.

"Why did she have to be so mean? I only wanted her to have fun playing with me…"

The door burst open.

"Hello! Hello! Coming through, don't mind me at all, just passing through!"

A tall man barged confidently in the room, then stopped and turned over himself a few times, taking in the paintings on the wall.

"Ohoh, a gallery! I love galleries! Hey", he said, striding purposefully toward the painting of the woman on the swing, "there is someone missing on this Fragonard! Cheeky woman that model", he added conspiratorially to Anna. "I think she had a thing for me actually. Do you know where I could meet the daughters of the King of Arendelle?"

Anna looked the man over, bewildered. He had ruffled hair, and wore a long waistcoat with a shirt and a bow tie. He was also completely unknown to her, which was something of a novelty in the last two years.

"Did you understand me?" he asked again, not unkindly. "I have a personal message to convey to the daughters of the King of Arendelle. And of the Queen, of course. That makes them the Princesses of Arendelle. Do you know where they are?"

"I am", said Anna, delighted at the distraction. "I am Princess Anna of Arendelle", she added, trying to curtsy and almost tripping herself in the process. "I have a sister, but she won't talk to me."

"Oh no", said the man exasperatedly, "you are even younger than before! I got the time wrong again! What is it with me and the time when I come here? What", he added, turning over himself, then pointing a finger at Anna, then at the various paintings on the wall, "is wrong! With me! And the time! Here!" he asked with emphasis.

"I don't know!" said Anna, backing away. "I'm sorry!"

"Sorry? Sorry for what? What should you feel sorry for?" asked the man, almost threateningly, advancing toward her. "So your sister has already begun not talking to you?" he asked, with a suddenly compassionate tone.

"Yes, for almost two years! She only says mean things now!" stuttered Anna. "I only asked her to build a snowman and she said she did not want to."

"She's wrong", said the man, crouching to be on her level. "You should always take the time to build snowmen with your sister. Unless of course they are animated by an alien entity bent on covering the world with snow, of course. Or if you are in a forest about to be destroyed by acid rain. Are you in a forest about to be destroyed by acid rain?"

"No! I'm in a castle! And there's plenty of snow in the courtyard. Fresh snow! It's the best for building snowmen!"

The man looked at her. Anna had not been able to keep the tremor out of her voice, and she felt another tear stinging her eye.

"And your sister made snowmen with you before?"

"Yes! Before she shut herself in her room we were always playing together but now she never comes out. My parents say it's because she has to learn to be a queen."

"Stop concealing" muttered the man, as if speaking for himself. He sighed. "You see, Anna, I'm supposed to do something about this but if I do it now I won't be asked to do it later and I can't let that happen. Or not happen." He looked at her with his penetrating, kind gaze for a few seconds, then appeared to reach a decision. "Tell you what, I will help you to build a snowman. It would be sad to let all this good snow unused, don't you think?"

"Yes!" shouted Anna. "We are going to build a snowman!" She paused. "Do you think my sister would come and see it when we are done?"

"Maybe", said the man, smiling non-committally. "OK, then, you lead the way. Let's build a snowman!"

The man strode resolutely toward a door. Anna ran after him and tugged on his coat.

"Err… the courtyard is this way…"

"Right! The courtyard! Let's go to the courtyard! I'm the Doctor by the way!"

Anna danced around the man as they walked in the empty corridors. She vaguely wondered what he was doing here, but she was too happy to have found someone with whom to build a snowman. Her parents seldom had time for this, and besides, it painfully reminded her of the few times all _four_ of them had been playing in the snow.

They finally reached the big courtyard, white and silent. Anna shouted and jumped into the powder, then rolled around a bit before erupting again in front of the tall man.

"Can we build a snowman now, Sir Doctor?"

But the man had stopped and was looking around him with a perplexed expression.

"That courtyard..." he muttered.

The stranger walked a few steps into the snow before turning over himself, taking in the courtyard and the buildings surrounding it.

"Of course", he exclaimed suddenly, smacking his forehead. "Arendelle! I knew that name was ringing a bell!" He crouched and seized Anna's hand. "And your sister is named Elsa, right?"

Anna nodded, slightly perplexed by the man's behaviour, and vaguely afraid that he would come back on his promise.

"Queen Elsa of Arendelle! Of course! That was ages ago! No wonder I kept missing! This must be a fixed point in time!"

"No, wait, Sir, my sister is a princess, like me. She will be a queen, some day, but…"

"Of course, of course", said the man, suddenly serious.

He looked at her with a sad smile.

"I'm sorry, Princess Anna of Arendelle, I really can't help you with your sister, but I can promise it will get better. In… well, some years."

"Okay." Anna shuffled hesitantly, looking down. "Does that mean you don't want to build a snowman now?"

"Of course I want to build a snowman! Just you watch me! It will be the snowmaniest snowman to have ever snowmaned in snowmankind!"

The tall man plunged into the snow, flailing fruitlessly trying to grab it, and Anna followed him giggling.

* * *

Elsa jumped as she heard steps echoing in the corridor.

"I have to go, now, Miss", she said, leaving the room. "I must stay in my room. I hope you liked the frost!"

"I told you to call me Clara. And thank you for the frost flowers. They were great."

Elsa skipped quickly to her door.

"Wait" Clara called. "That's my friend!"

A tall man in a waistcoat had appeared. He saluted Elsa with a large gesture and a friendly smile, then opened the door of the blue wardrobe.

"Wait, Doctor!" Clara called. "I wanted to ask…"

"No, no, we are leaving now. No time. Bye, Elsa! We will meet later! And watch this, you will like it. You too will like it", he added, looking in the corridor behind the box.

Clara tried to protest but the man grabbed her and pulled her inside the box. Elsa watched with puzzlement the doors close behind them, wondering how they would both fit in such a tight space. Then a lamp at the top of the box suddenly lit up, as the strange sound that had drawn her out of her room began to echo in the corridor.

Under Elsa's amazed eyes, the box began to slowly disappear, becoming more and more transparent as the unearthly sound slowly receded. Eventually the last echo died as the box disappeared for good, revealing a little girl with strawberry blond hair watching with amazement on the other side.

Both sisters exchanged an awed gaze across the corridor. Then Elsa came back to her senses and ran to her room, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

Clara strode around the TARDIS console, reaching the Doctor who was rummaging in a box he had retrieved from a panel on the floor.

"What was that all about? This little girl needed help! Why the sudden leave?"

The Doctor looked up.

"I'm sorry, Clara. That was a promise I made a long time ago, but I got the time wrong."

"So now you are travelling to the correct date?"

"No. I had already been there, actually. It's a fixed point in time, I can't do anything about it." The Time Lord smiled. "But it's OK! It will turn out OK, and I won't have to do anything! At least… I think. Is that not cool?"

Clara frowned, unconvinced.

"Look!"

The Doctor had managed to find something among the mess stored inside the box, and presented it to Clara with a flourish. She bent down to look at it.

"It's… a little TARDIS… made of… glass?"

She reached out to touch it, then moved her hand away with a little cry of surprise.

"It's ice cold? Is it made of ice? How did it not melt?"

"I don't know!" beamed the Doctor. "Isn't it marvellous, not knowing?"

The Doctor placed the little ice TARDIS back into the big cardboard box.

"Was that… from the little girl who made the frost flowers?"

"Yes! When she is older… I should go check on her later, someday, now that I'm on the same page. I never thanked her properly for this little sculpture."

The Doctor put the box back under the floor and closed the panel, then jumped to the console and rattled his controls.

"Come on, let's go somewhere warm! How about Las Vegas?"

* * *

Elsa looked at the little flowers of frost forming on the window, spreading from her gloveless hand. _Fractals_ , she thought as she watched the patterns form, trying to commit to memory the word she had learned to describe her creations. She had no idea if she would see this strange woman again, but for now she felt strangely hopeful. Maybe one day she would really be able to control her powers. In the meantime, there was no reason for not enjoying their beauty when she was alone and there was no one who she could hurt.

She was also relieved to have seen that Anna looked happy. And she was pretty sure that her sister had been playing in the snow. There had been some white powder in her hair that had not melted yet.

* * *

Anna was looking into the courtyard, at the curiously shaped snowmen they had built. The strange man had insisted each time to build a better snowman, as he said the last one looked like something he did not like. None of them had ended up looking like Olaf, however.

But Anna was happy. Partly because she had been able to play with someone else, even if it was a grown-up, although he really behaved like a child at times. But mainly because she had been able to see her sister, even for a few seconds. And because there had been a little half-smile on Elsa's lips, that had not vanished when she had seen her.


	2. Watching awakenings

Anna braced herself, then knocked on the door.

"Elsa? It's me, Anna. Listen, I know you never want to open but… the sky's awake tonight. I'm not asking to build a snowman", she added hurriedly, "and besides it's summer, but… I just wanted to watch it in the courtyard and I was wondering if, um… if you would have had time, only a few minutes, not more, to watch it with me? Like we did before? Just a few minutes?"

Anna waited. She had little hope for an answer, but anything would have been welcome. Anything but the silence which had been Elsa's only response in the last years. Even if it was for telling her to leave.

The answer she got was not the one she had expected. It was a strange sound, rising and falling, that began echoing in the corridor. She searched her memory. She had heard it only once, when she was what she now considered to be a little girl, but she still remembered it perfectly. It had been the day when a strange man had come to build snowmen with her. It was the noise that had accompanied the disappearance of the strange blue box…

Anna had sometimes wondered if she had not dreamed it. Her parents had seemed unaware that a doctor was there this day, and had assumed that all the snowmen were her doing. The only other witness she knew of the box disappearance was behind the door, and had talked very little about it, when she still talked to her.

Anna turned her head and gasped. The box was there, appearing out of thin air, slowly gaining consistency while the strange sound kept rising and falling, becoming louder each time until it finally stopped with what sounded like a musical chord.

Anna slowly walked to the box. She was a few meters from it when the door opened and a tall, red-haired woman stepped out. She wore a curiously short dress with black tights and boots. Her clothes and hair were also rather wet, the young princess noticed, as if she had just been standing in the rain for a while. The woman gave Anna a friendly smile.

"Hi kiddo", she said. "We are looking for princesses."

A man burst out of the box. Anna gasped as she recognised the strange man who had built snowmen with her four or five years ago. She also caught a glimpse of what seemed to be an impossibly large and luminous room behind the door before the man slammed it behind him.

"Hello, hello, good morning, or is it evening, always get these two confused, tricky things the time zones", bellowed the man as he came level to Anna.

"Are you…" Anna tried to remember the name of the man, but only came up with a title "a… doctor?"

"Oh, hi, yes, I'm the Doctor, this is Amy" said the man with a vague gesture toward the red-haired woman. "And you are…?"

"I'm Princess Anna of Arendelle", she said, curtsying. "We already met some years ago, don't you remember? We built snowmen…"

The man leaned toward her, looking suddenly serious.

"Hello, your Highness", he said gravely. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I've got some sad news for you… and your sister. You do have a sister, right?"

"Yes, I do, didn't I tell you before?" said Anna, taken aback. "But she never leaves her room."

"Ah. I see", said the man in a grave tone. He straightened up. "We have a message from your parents to both of you. Are you the eldest?"

"Eldest? No, that's my sister. Her room is over there, but…"

The man strode confidently toward Elsa's door and knocked on it.

"Your Highness?" he called. "Princess of Arendelle who is not Anna? I'm the Doctor. You should come out, I have a very important message from your parents." He paused. "And some sad news."

Anna looked questioningly at the red-haired woman.

"Have I done something wrong? Why did Mama and Papa send you to tell us?"

The woman smiled sadly.

"I'm sorry, kiddo", she said, casting a helpless glance to the man who was still knocking on Elsa's door.

"Oh, I know", said Anna, realisation dawning. "The officials are staying longer than expected, right?"

"No it's… wait, what officials?"

"It's the officials from Arendelle, they came to discuss, err, things about the provinces", Anna finished lamely.

It was a sore spot. She should have rejoiced that people from outside came into the castle, even if it was not the occasion for a party as it had been before, and that she was allowed to attend the meeting, but they had been talking about things so boring that she had discreetly left while her parents kept discussing with them.

"There are officials talking with your parents right now?"

"Yes! Well, they should have left by now, but…"

"So, let me get this straight, your parents are not supposed to be on a ship at this moment?"

Anna looked at the woman in surprise.

"No! Why would they be on a ship?"

"Doctor!" called the woman urgently. She left Anna to join the man who had been rattling Elsa's door and was now crouching in front of the keyhole, waving a strange stick around. "Doctor!"

"Hush, Amy" said the man distantly, "This young woman does not want to open her door and does not even answer. Her father had told me that she was special but…"

The woman yanked him up.

"Doctor!" she hissed. "Their parents are in the castle right now!"

"What?" said the man, looking baffled. "But that's not possible, I did not set the TARDIS to move in time. OK, I'm almost sure I did not. Pretty sure I did not. Actually…"

"What do we do now?" she asked urgently. "Are we supposed to tell them anyway or would that break time or something?"

"Well obviously no, we should not interfere…" The man shot a glance at the closed door. "But I would really like to know what causes this young lady to shut herself in like that."

"She's been doing that for years now" Anna volunteered. She had tried to follow the conversation to gain an inkling about who these people were and what they wanted but to no avail. At least she could fill them in about Elsa, if there was a chance it could lead to making her open her door. "I don't see her any more. I'm pretty sure I told you that when I saw you the last time. It's still true."

The two strangers looked at her questioningly, then at each other. The woman made an interrogatory smirk.

"Have you…"

"Anyway", cut the man, "if you would be so kind as to go speak with this young lady somewhere else", he said, resting a hand on Anna's shoulder then removing it awkwardly, "I have some business to attend to." He winked in the most ostentatious manner.

"All right", sighed the woman. "But there'd better be some explanation later! Come, kiddo" she said to Anna, "let's go somewhere else."

Anna followed reluctantly. She would have loved to see if Elsa would eventually open her door. This doctor man seemed persistent, even if he had had no better luck so far than her. On the other hand, all this was excitingly new. And the woman may be probably a dozen years older than her, but there was something in her that reminded Anna of herself.

"Would you like to watch the sky? It's awake this evening."

The woman looked at her dubiously.

"Awake? Oh why not, let's go watch the sky being awake."

* * *

Elsa was flattened against the wall, which was now completely covered with ice. She had recognised the unearthly noise as the one that had heralded the arrival of the strange but sympathetic woman in the blue box years ago. She was pretty sure she had not recognised her voice from behind the door, but was wondering if the man she had heard speaking was not the friend she had talked about. The princess had not understood much of the conversation, but she had managed to gather that someone was leading Anna away. This was good.

There was another knocking on her door that made her jump and add more ice to the wall behind her. Then the voice of the man.

"Listen, you don't seem to want people to enter, but I would really like to have a little chat with you. I may even be able to help you. You seem to be very unusual, for a human. So I'm going to come in now, OK? Unless you want to speak from the other side of the door. I can do that too, you simply have to tell me."

Elsa tried to refrain herself from gasping. She eyed the key in her door. It was safely locked, she had made sure of that.

"OK no answer, so you don't mind me coming in, then?"

There was a strange whistling sound, then a click from the keyhole. The door slowly opened with a creak.

"Please", Elsa cried, jumping back "please, no, go out, I don't want to hurt you, please!"

A tall man stood in the doorway. She tried to remember if he was the man she had briefly seen entering the blue box years ago. He was tall and gangly and wore a bow tie, just like the man had.

"Hello" he said, his face lighting with a friendly smile. "I'm the Doctor. You must be the eldest princess of Arendelle. Since it appears that you can indeed speak, may I talk to you for a second?"

He stepped inside the room. Elsa backed away.

"No, please" she implored, "please don't come closer. I could hurt you. Please, you have no right to be here."

"OK, I'm not coming closer", said the man, stopping. "Look how not closer I'm coming. Have you seen? Absolutely not coming closer. Completely staying in place. I could probably win a staying in place championship. Did you know that a tribe on a planet in the constellation of Aevi-13 actually holds such a contest every eleven years? I finished last twice in a row."

Elsa cocked her head. She wondered if the man was not actually mad. But if he had come from the disappearing blue box, maybe he had some knowledge of magic. She had lost all hope a long time ago to find outside help for her powers, but she had also never met anything quite as strange as this box.

Something fell from the jacket of the man and hit the carpet with a thump. They both looked at it. It was a large splinter of wood that had apparently been embedded in the fabric of the jacket. Under Elsa's astonished eyes, the splinter twitched, then bounced on the carpet and landed near the foot of her chair.

"Oh no", said the man, looking very alarmed. "This is not good. This is very not good at all."

Elsa began moving closer to her chair to get a better look, but the man suddenly stepped in front of her.

"I don't think you should come near that. It can be very dangerous." Over his shoulder, he gave her a friendly, if manic, grin. "I can take care of it, don't worry. I hope" he added, some apprehension creeping in his voice.

There was a creaking of wood. Elsa looked at her chair and gasped. The piece of furniture was lurching on the carpet, its feet slowly moving like those of a clumsy beast. The man produced a short stick and waved it in front of the chair. The stick emitted a whistling sound while glowing a strange green light.

"This must have been a part of the original fragment… Very clever, piggy-backing on me like that… Now it will start spreading again… Stupid screwdriver", he added, slamming his stick in frustration, "still not doing wood!"

The chair reared like a horse. Its feet caught the man squarely in the stomach and sent him flying backward. Elsa only had time to jump away to avoid the stranger who sprawled against the far wall, letting out a yelp of pain.

"Be careful", he shouted, trying to catch its breath, "it's dangerous!"

Elsa backed away. The chair was now moving with the agility of a dog. It turned on itself a few times, then aimed resolutely at the night-stand, colliding with it. Behind her, the man shouted another warning.

Elsa's eyes widened as she saw her night-stand shudder, then slowly begin moving. The chair turned round and aimed toward the bed. Out of the corner of her eye, the princess saw the man get up and rush to it, shouting warnings, only to be greeted with another kick in the stomach. He fell gasping at her feet.

"Run" gasped the man. "It only wants to kill."

Elsa took a deep breath. The chair was fretting in place, apparently hesitating between going toward them or resuming its path to the bed. The night-stand had begun moving slowly but purposefully toward her great desk.

"Run away!" he managed to shout. "It will… spread. Everything... that is wood…"

Elsa looked at the wood panels lining the walls, then at heavy wooden beams supporting the roof above her.

"Run" panted the man one more time. "The only way to stop it… is to break it."

Elsa finally took a decision and removed her left glove. She aimed her hand at the chair and concentrated. For the first time in years, she willingly invoked her powers. They answered eagerly.

The silvery ray shot from her fingers. It felt almost enjoyable, she realised guiltily, to feel the cold erupt from her hand again. Ice instantly covered the chair, thickening rapidly. In a few seconds, the piece of furniture was barely visible inside a block of ice.

"Or freeze it" said the man in stride. "That could work too… Ice would break the bonds at a molecular level… Beware the night-stand!"

Elsa turned. The night-stand had almost reached the desk. Another thought. Another guilty feeling of freedom. Another silvery spray. Another block of ice slowly expanding a few feet from the desk. Elsa shuddered. It was so easy. _If Anna had been there instead of this night-stand…_

For a few seconds, there was only the creaking of ice in the room, as the man tried to recover silently his breath while Elsa was still looking at the two frozen furnitures. Then the stranger jumped on his feet and waved his stick at them, before looking it over. He turned to Elsa, a manic grin on his face.

"That did it! The cold destroyed the amino-acids that formed the pseudo-neural bonds. You probably saved the world today" he added gravely.

Elsa looked up at him. The man frowned as if he had just noticed something, then smiled another of his crazed smiles.

"Ice powers! That _is_ cool! I mean, ice is cool, but having the power to create ice is… even more cool. Cool that is cool. Cool squared. Is that an acquired ability?"

Without letting her time to react, the man had seized her hand and examined it intently while waving his strange whistling stick over it.

"No, please" said Elsa, coming back to her senses. "I will hurt you… I don't know how to stop it…"

The man was laughing with childlike glee, as frost was now slowly forming on his hand.

"That's a near absolute zero!" he shouted, in a way that reminded Elsa of Anna opening her presents, when she was still attending her sister's birthdays. "Your frail human body is able to create a thermodynamic inversion at the subatomic level! You humans will never cease to impress me! You are amazing" he added, speaking to her hand.

He suddenly let her go with a yelp of pain.

"Ouch! And cold. And so very very cold! Absolute zero is not cool! Not not cool like not cold but not cool like not bow-tie cool!"

The man shook his hand. It was blue and entirely covered in frost, which was now slowly progressing on his sleeve. He flexed and extended it rapidly.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" shouted Elsa, backing away while frantically putting back her glove. "I did not want to hurt you! I can't stop it!"

"Don't worry, I'll be all right" said the man reassuringly. He pointed at his hand, which was slowly regaining colours. "See? It's healing. I'm good at healing my hands. Did I tell you I lost a hand once? It was the same hand. Or not, because it regrew. The other one became another me, but he was less interesting."

The man stopped his babbling, suddenly serious. He looked gravely at the young girl for a few seconds. Elsa was trying to recover her calm, looking at her now safely gloved hands and trying to ignore the frost spreading on the wall behind her.

"Does your sister know?" he said brusquely, looking at her with suddenly piercing yet kind eyes.

Elsa shook her head.

"No. Only my parents. I hurt her once… with my powers."

The man was now smiling sorrowfully. He seemed as if he wanted to walk up to her, but mercifully remained in place.

"Did you want to hurt her?"

"No! Of course no! I would never… It was an accident… I can't control them!"

"You seem as if you controlled them fine just now."

Elsa sighed and looked meaningfully at the frosted wall behind her.

"I can freeze things if I want. But I also freeze them when I don't want to, and I can't stop it, I can never stop it…"

Elsa buried her head in her hands, trembling. The man let out a soothing whisper. He looked at her intently, opening and closing his mouth a few times as if trying to find something to say, and nodding left and right. Finally he slowly walked up to her and stopped a few feet away, leaning forward to be on her level.

"You don't need to be afraid of your powers because you can't control them", he said, very softly. "Maybe you will never control them fully. But today you did good, really good with them. Your parents would…" he stopped, mouthing wordlessly for a few seconds, before resuming. "You stopped a threat to all life on Earth. With your incomplete control." The man smiled sadly. "You can always hurt the people you care about, and sometimes in ways you don't realise. Sometimes it's simply by not being there, or being twelve years too late…" He breathed, nodding powerlessly. "Don't… don't ignore your powers. They are part of who you are, whether you control them or not. They can help you. Don't shut…"

He suddenly straightened up.

"Well, that's all for now. I may see you again in…" he contorted himself strangely to look at a watch that was curiously strapped on his wrist "a few years from now, if I can get the date right this time." He turned to the frozen furnitures. "Oh, this reminds me…"

The man pointed his glowing stick to them. There was another whistling sound before both of them exploded into a shower of little icicles. He waved his stick over them once more before looking at it. He smiled satisfyingly.

"Nothing left. I shall gather these and drop them somewhere. Thank you for everything, Your Highness. Practise your powers from time to time. It could come in handy someday."

Elsa looked up at the man. His words had somewhat calmed her troubled spirits, although she had not understood everything he had said.

"Who _are_ you, exactly, Sir? What happened to my chair?"

The man smiled confidently.

"Homicidal consciousness bent on spreading through self-replicating alteration of the molecular patterns appearing in the amino-acids present in cellulose… You snuffed it right out. As for your first question, I told you already… I'm the Doctor."

* * *

Anna reached the courtyard, the ginger-haired woman following her, without encountering anyone. That was not too surprising, since it was late in the evening, and the staff had been reduced since the doors of the castle had been closed, but the woman commented on it.

"It's always like this", answered Anna. "Here, look!" she added as the sky appeared above them. "The sky's awake!"

The woman looked up, and laughed.

"An aurora borealis! So I got to see one after all!"

"Oh, yeah, that's how it's really called" said Anna sourly. "I liked my way better."

"Don't worry, your way is fine. Actually I love it better than mine. Never liked those Latin words much", said the woman, frowning expressively. "The Romans were fascinating but their language sometimes sounded like a chemist inventory…"

Anna walked up to a bench against the castle walls, and sat on it, looking up. The woman joined her and both of them stared at the swirly drapes of light above them.

"I used to come here with my sister when we were younger" said Anna eventually. "In winter the courtyard was always full of snow and we would play here. Do you have a sister, Miss?"

"Call me Amy. No, there's just me and my aunt. I grew up alone…"

"Well I'm alone now. My sister does not play with me any more, and there is nobody my age around here."

"But you still have your parents" the woman said, her voice strangely emotional, her face deep in shadows.

"Yes, and I love them very much, but they don't always have time for me. And I can't play with them like I would with someone my age."

"Enjoy your time with them anyway. You never know… well, enjoy it", said Amy, reaching over Anna's shoulder and gently hugging her.

They both stared at the sky for some time.

"Your friend came here, some years ago" Anna said eventually. "It was winter and we built snowmen in this courtyard. It was very fun. I don't know why he does not seem to remember it" she added sadly.

"He does that" said Amy bitterly. "I've met him when I was a little girl too, younger than you. He came back… well, two years ago. And then he came back this evening. Sort of. It's complicated."

"What did you do during that time?"

"I waited."

"But you had friends, right?"

"Oh, yes, of course. There was Mels, and Rory and… some guys..."

"Did you play with them?"

"Oh yes." The woman giggled. "I asked Rory to dress as the Doctor. Poor Rory."

"Do you still see him?"

"Well, yeah, I'm… sort of… getting married with him tomorrow… sort of."

Anna turned to Amy, her eyes sparkling in the darkness.

"You are getting married tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow and the next century or so. It's a bit complicated, I told you."

Anna leaned toward her, smiling dreamily.

"So he's your true love?"

Amy paused before answering.

"I… like him very much. I… well, I'll see right? Anyway, we are getting married, and… he's really kind and… I've known him since we were kids…"

"And did you fall in love with him as soon as you saw him?"

"What? No…" Amy laughed. "Actually it took me a while to realise he was in love with me. We had known each other for so long."

"Well, I don't know any boy" said Anna dejectedly, looking at her feet. "So I will have to fall in love with someone I don't know."

"Hey, take your time, kiddo", said Amy, playfully elbowing her in the ribs. "Besides it's sometimes better to have a little… unexpected in your life. People you've known for a long time make you feel safe, but it lacks the thrill of the unknown."

They looked at the sky in silence for a while, Anna leaning on Amy.

"Do you think your friend could convince my sister to come out of her room?" Anna asked eventually.

"Maybe", said Amy non-committally.

"How did you meet him?"

"Well there was… something frightening me in my room. A strange crack in the wall. Seems a bit silly, I know, but…"

"Oh, I was frightened by a lot of things when I was a little girl! But my sister would always come to reassure me. When she was there…"

Anna shuddered and moved closer to Amy. The young woman laid a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"He fixed the crack" she resumed. "And then he promised he would come back to see me five minutes later."

"And he was late?"

"Very late. But he did came back, though."

"What did he do during that time? Did he lock himself in his box and refused to go out?"

Amy suppressed a laugh.

"No, though that would have been fun. No, he simply… disappeared. With his box. He says he wanted to be back earlier but he made a mistake."

There was another silence as both of them gazed at the glowing sky. Anna was now lying on the bench, her head resting in Amy's lap.

"Do you think my sister will be back with me one day?" she asked eventually.

"I… don't know, kiddo. I hope she's not as complicated as the Doctor. But even he came back."

They heard someone shouting in the distance.

"Is that your friend calling you?" asked Anna.

"Yeah" sighed Amy. "I'm afraid I must go."

"Will I see you again?"

"I don't know. Maybe… in a few years" Amy added, her voice sad.

"That's OK", said Anna cheerfully. "Thanks for watching the sky with me."

"Thanks _you_."

Anna followed Amy through the empty corridors, back to the blue box. Amy winked at her.

"Stay here, you will like this."

Anna clapped her hands.

"It will disappear? I remember seeing it when I was little!"

Amy frowned, then entered the box. Soon, the lamp at the top lit up while the unearthly sound echoed against the walls. Anna watched with awe as the box slowly lost its substance, eventually disappearing with a rush of wind as the last echoes of the sound died away. This time, however, her sister was not behind it. She looked at Elsa's door. Was she imagining it, or had its handle moved?

She hesitated a bit, then walked to the closed door.

"Hi, Elsa", she said. "I could watch the sky with a nice lady who came from the blue box. She had never seen the sky being awake before! Now I'm going to bed. I hope you could see the box disappearing like the last time, it was fun! Good night, Elsa."

Anna waited a little, then began the walk to her room. She had walked a dozen feet when she heard a voice, slightly muffled through the wood and the distance.

"Good night, Anna."

* * *

Amy glared at the Doctor from the other side of the console.

"Why could we not say to them to speak to each other now? These poor girls are all alone, even while their parents are still alive. It's sad, being alone and feeling abandoned", she added pointedly.

"I'm sorry Amy", said the Doctor, raising his head over the controls over which he had been hunched. "Something went wrong with the temporal coordinates. Don't worry, we'll try again later. Did you have fun watching the aurora borealis?"

"I prefer to say that the sky's awake."

The Doctor fiddled with the controls.

"Suits you, Pond. That's a fun way of putting it. Of course, I know a place where the sky really is awake. It's a symbiotic biodome on a colony orbiting a white dwarf… Would you like to see it?"

"Will we come back to these little girls later?"

The Doctor smiled reassuringly.

"Of course. I promise." He frowned. "A woman with cryokinetic ability… that rings another bell. I wonder…"

The TARDIS tumbled away in the Time Vortex.

* * *

In the safety of her room, Elsa slowly removed her glove. She was still wondering if she had been right to answer her sister. She was afraid this would only encourage Anna to insist more, but at least, she had simply not done that this evening.

The princess looked at the floor and concentrated. With a little tingling sound, a little block of ice formed on the ground. Elsa crouched to look. It definitely looked like a miniature castle, if only a bit misshapen. Maybe she could practice doing that from time to time.

* * *

Anna reclined on her bed, looking at the drapes of light by her window, imagining shapes in them, and half seriously checking the walls of her room for any sign of a strange crack. As sleep slowly took her away, she smiled as she remembered a muffled voice through a wooden door, answering her for the first time in years.  
" _Good night, Anna."_


	3. Let's kill this ship

"So, Pond", the Doctor asked, slamming levers apparently at random, "where do you want to go now?"

Amy slowly circled the TARDIS console, looking thoughtful. Finally she raised her head, smiling mischievously.

"You know", she said, "I've never seen an aurora borealis. Always wished I did."

"Fine", bellowed the Doctor. "I know a planet where the magnetic field has been altered to allow…"

"AND", continued Amy, her eyes sparkling, "I would like to watch it over the sea."

"Over the sea, right", blubbered the Doctor, fiddling with his controls. "So there is this planet covered by an ocean where every 3000 years, give or take…"

"Actually", interrupted Amy, "it would have to be a frozen sea. Or lake. But it has to be big."

"Right, right", said the Doctor, jumping around the console, briefly pausing to watch the scanner screen. "So I've got an asteroid with a…"

"Did I mention I also want that to be as Earth-like as possible, but not Earth itself. That would be cheating."

Amy leaned languidly on the console. "So go on, raggedy man. Surprise me."

The Doctor straightened up, looking dignified, then pulled a lever. The chord announcing the TARDIS materialising echoed inside the room. The Time Lord switched a last lever, then wordlessly showed the door with a flourish.

"Are we there yet?" asked Amy, crossing her arms.

The Doctor silently reiterated his gesture. Amy slowly walked to the door and opened it.

"So?" called the Doctor.

"It's… cloudy" came the answer. "And… wavy." She turned back to the Doctor. "I think we are on a ship."

"What?" The Doctor fiddled with his controls and looked at the scanner, before swatting the screen away and strolling to join Amy at the door. He took in the wooden floor, the three masts loaded with sails, the cloudy sky and the not so gentle rocking, and reached a conclusion.

"Amy, I think that we have landed on a ship."

Amy smirked.

"So, how do I watch my aurora borealis? And on which planet are we anyway?"

The Doctor stuck his tongue out and turned once or twice over himself.

"Earth" he said eventually. "Mid-19th century. Not quite what I was aiming for. Not at all, actually. Closer to the opposite to be fair." He raised a finger in the air and bent over the railing to watch at the agitated sea. "We do seem to be closer to the North Pole, though, so an aurora borealis is not out of the question."

"With this sky?" asked Amy, not trying to hide the sarcasm from her voice.

Whatever the Doctor was about to answer was interrupted by a booming voice.

"Hey you! What are you doing on my ship?"

The owner of the voice, a large, bearded man with a blue coat and a broad-brimmed hat was strolling toward them.

"Ah, hello my good Sir", said the Doctor genially. "You must be the Captain of this fine ship. I'm the Doctor and this is Amy."

"How in blazes did you get on board? We are miles from the coast!"

"Don't worry, we got there just fine, no trouble at all", said the Doctor, tapping the man on the shoulder reassuringly.

"You get your hands off me, Mister", said the captain, brusquely pushing the Doctor's hand away. "And you will tell me what you are doing here!"

"What is going on, Captain?"

The man who had spoken was a thin, blond man, with short hair and a small moustache, wearing an elegant suit decorated with medals and epaulettes. A petite, brunette woman wearing a dark blue dress was standing a few steps behind him.

"Sorry, your Majesty", said the captain deferentially. "These people just turned up on my ship out of nowhere. Maybe they are responsible for my missing men…"

"Oh, hello", said the Doctor, rushing to the man and vigorously shaking his hand. "I'm the Doctor, and this is Amy! You must be a king of some place. I get on well with kings. Well, some of them. Those that did not set up standing orders to shoot me on sight anyway. Hello", he added, taking the hand of the woman behind the King, leaning as if he was about to kiss it, before settling on to shake it vigorously instead, "you must be the queen that goes with the king, nice to meet you! What was that about missing men?" he asked, brusquely turning around to face the befuddled captain.

"Three men of my crew disappeared yesterday, and we have no… I don't have to answer you! Sire, I advise caution! This man is a stowaway and possibly dangerous!"

"I'm not a stowaway and I'm not dangerous, unless you are planning the complete extinction of the human race, in which case I can be very dangerous to you indeed. You are not planning the extinction of the human race, are you?" asked the Doctor with a friendly smile.

The captain was slowly reddening with anger.

"Restrain him!" he shouted to the crew members who were drawing closer. "Be careful, he is dangerous!"

"What? No, no, no, you misunderstood, I'm not dangerous, and I don't think you actually are planning the extinction of the human race." The Doctor turned over himself, his hands raised. "Your Majesty", he said, turning to the moustachioed man, "I can ensure you that I am in no way responsible for these people disappearing."

"He's right", said Amy, striding forward to join them. "We just arrived here."

"Captain!"

A sailor came running to the captain.

"I can't find Mats and Artur! They were lowering the jib to keep up with the wind…"

"What!?" shouted the captain. "That's five of us missing now! Are you sure they are not below deck?"

"Yes! I looked everywhere."

"Maybe they fell overboard" Amy volunteered.

The captain turned to her, furious.

"Don't insult my men! It would take more than this weather to have them fall overboard without anyone noticing! And who tells me you are not responsible anyway?"

They were interrupted by the whistling of the sonic screwdriver. The Doctor was holding it at arm's length, slowly turning over himself. He then looked at it, frowning.

"Something wrong, Doctor?" asked Amy, closing to him.

"Not wrong, really. More like… unusual. I get a strange reading from this ship, but I can't pinpoint its origin. Can I see where you saw those men last?" he asked politely to the sailor.

"WHAT?" shouted the captain, who was now turning crimson. "Who are you to give orders? I don't know what prevents me from throwing the lot of you overboard!"

"OK, that man, that man, is really not cooperative", said the Doctor, turning to the King. "You seem like an enlightened monarch. Could you order him to let me check what is wrong with your sailors? I only want to help."

The King looked at the Doctor keenly.

"Who are you exactly… Doctor?" he asked eventually.

"I'm just passing through. I wanted to show Amy an aurora borealis, but I kind of missed. Unless one of them is due this evening. Do you know if the solar wind is strong these days?"

"And you really think you can help?"

"I can try", said the Doctor, smiling.

"And I assure you we did not throw anyone overboard", said Amy, popping up at the Doctor's side. "We just arrived anyway."

"Sire!" The captain was looking as if he was about to burst. "With all due respect, these two people can't be trusted! I don't know how they came aboard…"

"Oh please someone shut up that man", said the Doctor dismissively. "I have a…"

There was a brief shout from the fore of the ship. Everyone turned around. Without waiting, the Doctor ran forward, his sonic screwdriver pointed in front of him. He was closely followed by Amy, then the captain and the King. They soon reached the forward mast. The Doctor waved his screwdriver around, while the rest caught up with him. The shipmen were looking up.

"Captain… Davi and Steffen were folding the sail here…" said one of the sailors.

The captain was looking up concernedly. The yards of the mast above them were devoid of any sailor, and the sail was still waving in the wind. Amy leaned over the railing to look at the sea, but only foam could be seen floating on the agitated water.

The Doctor shook his sonic screwdriver frustratingly. The captain walked up to him and looked at him with weary eyes.

"I suppose I owe you an apology" he said grudgingly. "You probably are not responsible for those ones as I had my eyes on you the whole time."

"Yes, yes, of course I'm not responsible" said the Doctor dismissively. "Could I see now where the first three men were when they disappeared? What were they doing?"

The captain sighed.

"The first one was the ship's carpenter. He had been working on a railing that was broken during the night. One minute he was sawing a log from the railing of the stern deck to replace it, the next minute there was no trace of him nor his saw."

"Did you know what broke the railing?" the Doctor asked.

The captain shrugged. "No idea. Something had smashed right through it, but we could not find what. Probably fell overboard afterwards. Now if you'll excuse me…"

"I'll have to see that. What were the two other men doing when they disappeared?"

"Cleaning up the bridge", the captain shot back, before turning away to give orders to his men.

The Doctor remained lost in thoughts, looking left and right and waving his sonic screwdriver around. Amy walked up to him.

"Doctor? Do you know what is going on here? Did they all fall overboard because they lost their footing or something?"

"No, Amy, I don't think they lost their footing" the Doctor said pensively. "I'm not sure yet, but I think this ship is encountering something more serious than an epidemic of sailors losing their footing."

There was a discreet cough behind them. The Doctor whirled around to face the King and the Queen.

"Oh, your Majesty. Any other information you would have about these disappearance?"

"None, Doctor. I simply wanted to point that these men are experienced shipmen. My nation has a long-standing naval tradition and the crew of this ship are good sailors. They will not simply lose their footing, as your friend suggested."

Amy pouted, and was preparing a retort, when the captain showed up at their side.

"Your Majesty, we are picking up too much speed in this weather. You may want to take shelter in your cabin until we manage to reduce sails without losing more men."

The King drew himself up.

"Thank you for your concern, Captain, but I will not hide below decks while an unknown party threatens your men."

He turned to his wife, but she shook her head.

"I'm not leaving your side" she said firmly.

"Fine!" exclaimed the Doctor to no one in particular. "Since that is settled, may I suggest, Captain, that you keep an eye on the men reducing sail?"

The captain smirked.

"Did you think I waited for your advice for that? I just ordered my men to remain here and watch those performing the manoeuvre. If something or someone is throwing my men overboard, I want to see who it is."

The captain left with the Doctor in tow. The King turned to Amy.

"Who are you both anyway?" he asked. "Do you think this man really has a chance to find out what is going on?"

"Well, if someone can, it will be him" Amy answered. "He always does stuff like that. He did that to me when I was little. Comes out of nowhere, helps out, disappears for years afterwards, comes back and helps again. I've been travelling with him for only a short time, but I think he has been doing it for all his life."

The King leaned forward, looking interested.

"What kind of help does he give? Has he a specific area of expertise?"

"As far as I can tell, everything is his area of expertise." She pondered a few seconds. "Especially when it's science-y and stuff" she added finally.

The King and Queen exchanged a long glance, before the King spoke again.

"Do you think he would have knowledge about… magic?"

"Magic?" Amy started giggling, then stopped when she saw their serious expressions. "What, are you threatened by some evil wizard? Do you think this is what is happening here?"

The King was about to answer when shouts erupted behind them. They turned to look at the mast where two sailors had been reducing sails under the watchful eye of their shipmates and the Doctor. They gasped at the sight above them.

One of the yards was coiling like a tentacle. It wrapped itself around a sailor, who let out a brief cry of pain, before flinging him away in a long curve that ended in the sea dozens of meters from the ship. The unconscious sailor disappeared almost instantly in the foamy water.

The yard uncoiled and resumed its original stance. A few seconds later, nothing in the masts could suggest that anything strange had occurred there… nor that there had been people there working the riggings.

Amy ran to the Doctor. He was waving his sonic screwdriver around, jumping across the deck, and ignoring the frantic shouts of the captain and his men.

"Doctor! The mast is moving! What is going on?"

The Doctor grumbled while tapping the side of the screwdriver, before retracting it.

"Still not doing wood, still not doing wood…" He turned to Amy, smiling. "Have you seen that, Amy? The ship is alive! It can move on its own, just like you and me! Isn't it beautiful?"

"It just killed two more men!" shouted Amy indignantly.

"Yes, yes, most unfortunate… But it was only a reaction! I'm sure if we could talk to it…"

"Did I hear you call that beautiful?" the captain cut in. "This… abomination of a ship is responsible for the death of a third of my crew by now, and you called her beautiful?"

"It! Is! Only! Reacting!" shouted the Doctor with sudden ferocity to the captain. "How would you like it to discover that there are fleas on you that try to prevent you from moving?"

"What are you saying?"

"Think, captain. What was the first victim doing? Sawing a railing. The ship had no way to know he was trying to fix it, it simply felt pain, so it swatted the poor guy away. Then, people scrubbing the bridge. That must have felt like an itch, and what do you do when you itch? You scratch, and you scratch until the itching goes away! And now, people have been trying to reduce its sails, to slow it down, so it's trying to prevent that! It does not know what we are!"

"But… but Doctor, I've been commanding this ship for fifteen years now! It has never decided to kill anyone, whether we were reducing her speed or scrubbing her bridge or whatever!"

"Yeah, well, you never know when an inanimate piece of wood is going to become alive. I would guess that whatever broke the railing overnight somehow spread inside the wood. But that's not important."

"It's not? Doctor, my ship has become homicidal and now you are saying it's not important?"

"What is important is, what is important is" the Doctor whirled around, "what is important IS?!"

"How do we stop it" the King volunteered.

"Yes! Very good! One point for the King. Actually, no, not quite good. What is important is, how do we get it to stop?"

"What is the difference?" the captain asked ruefully.

"Do you think it can understand us?" Amy asked.

The Doctor whirled back toward her and pointed his finger to her. His face broke into one of his manic grins.

"Good, Pond, good. It is living, so maybe it is also sentient. Maybe we can simply ask it nicely to stop throwing people overboard and let us reduce speed. Captain, can you show me where the railing was destroyed the first time?"

Shaking his head incredulously, the big bearded man pointed to the other side of the ship, before mournfully turning back to the agitated sea. The Doctor rushed to the broken railing, his sonic screwdriver raised. Amy joined him. She waited a few seconds, her arms crossed, as he waved the glowing wand over the broken pieces of wood.

"Finding something?" she called eventually.

The Doctor had picked up a large splinter embedded in the railing. He waved the screwdriver over it, then looked at it intently.

"Interleaved pseudo-cellulose fibres with a quasi-synaptic sub-molecular configuration" he muttered. "This" he said, brandishing the splinter "is not normal wood. Not Earth wood anyway. It must have been carrying a consciousness that somehow got transferred to the ship when it destroyed the railing."

The Doctor stood up, turned once or twice on himself, then slammed his foot hard on the bridge.

"Oi! Ship!" he called.

The Time Lord kicked the broken railing and yelped in pain.

"OK, let's not do that again. Ship! I'm the Doctor and I want to speak!"

"What are you doing now, Doctor?" called the captain, striding toward them.

"I'm trying to speak with the ship, of course. It gained a consciousness, so maybe it can understand us. I'm not sure I can speak ship, but…"

"Captain!"

They turned to the interruption. It was the helmsman. He was desperately gripping the wheel.

"Captain! The ship has changed course on her own! She's becoming harder to steer! I need…"

The wheel suddenly recoiled, hitting the man hard and sending him sprawled on the deck. Before anyone could react, the ship rocked violently, sending the unconscious body sliding against a railing. Under the horrified eyes of the passengers and crew, busy with keeping their footing, the railing spread wide to let the body drop into the sea. There was a distant splash of water.

Everyone remained silent for a few seconds, with only the creaks of the sails and the roar of the sea to be heard. Then the captain spoke.

"That's it! We are abandoning ship!"

"In this sea?" asked Amy. "Isn't it dangerous?"

"Young lady, nothing can be more dangerous than remaining on this cursed ship. A sea we can battle. But we need to be able to trust the vessel we are standing on!"

"It was not restraining it…" the Doctor muttered, obviously baffled. "It changed course and it did not want to be corrected. Why such an extreme measure…" The Time Lord turned to the captain. "Where are we headed now?"

"To our doom, if we don't leave this cursed ship soon."

Ignoring the Doctor, the captain walked away and began gathering his men. The King pointed to a compass.

"Plain East, Doctor" he said. "If I'm not mistaken this means we are now moving straight toward land."

"Land? That does not make sense… What did I miss, what did I miss" muttered the Doctor to himself as he walked in circles on the deck. The captain walked up to the little group.

"We are going to abandon ship" he said. "My men and their Majesties will board the first lifeboat." He turned to the Doctor. "I don't know how you two came on board, but there should be enough seats on the second lifeboat, so if you want to leave…"

"Don't worry about me" the Doctor said absent-mindedly. "I can leave on my own. Let's see, alien consciousness, possesses a ship, does not want to be slowed down, then wants to beach itself… There's something I'm not seeing…"

"I'm not leaving this ship before you, Captain" the King interrupted. "I will leave on the second lifeboat. My wife can…"

"I'm not leaving without you, my dear" the Queen said, gently but firmly.

"As you wish, your Majesties" the captain answered. "But every second you spend on this wretched boat puts your lives more at risk."

"Then let's put everyone to safety as fast as possible" answered the King.

The sailors quickly lowered the first lifeboat to the sea and began boarding it. Amy ended up helping to pass some equipment on board, along with the King and the Queen who insisted to give a hand. The Doctor kept running around on the deck, waving his sonic screwdriver, muttering to himself. Eventually the lifeboat was fully loaded and ready to launch.

"Stop!" the Doctor suddenly yelled, rushing to the railing overlooking the lifeboat. "I think I figured it out! Stop your men from leaving!"

"What are you talking about? Do you want us to remain on this wretched ship until it…"

"Come back on board!" the Doctor shouted to the men on the boat. "If I'm right, you are in grave danger!"

The men, who had been straining on the oars, manoeuvring their boat apart from the ship, looked up questioningly. Then, they yelled in unison as the sides of the boat began moving. Before anyone could do something, the benches flattened against the floor of the boat, then the sides slammed hard on the helpless sailors like a nutcracker. The lifeboat began to rock violently, dropping the unconscious sailors one by one into the sea.

Everyone on the ship was dumbstruck with horror. The captain looked as if he was on the verge of tears.

"It can spread" the Doctor muttered. "It can spread to anything wooden. And I was wrong to think it kills people because they disturb it. It kills them because it can."

The Time Lord was speaking in a low, subdued voice, but Amy could feel the anger slowly rising behind his words.

"That's why it wants to get to the shore. It wants to spread to all the wood there…"

"Well, that one is not going to go further!" the captain shouted suddenly, as the last of his sailors disappeared into the foamy sea.

The large man jumped on the stern deck and grabbed the wheel in both hands. It visibly resisted, but the captain was stronger. The ship began to turn ponderously, moving in the path of the lifeboat. The oars of the smaller boat began moving on their own accord, frantically paddling to try to avoid the behemoth moving on it. The bowsprit of the ship flexed, trying to push the lifeboat away, but it was not fast enough.

The ship shuddered as it collided with the lifeboat, breaking it in pieces with a loud cracking sound that was heard above the noise of the sea. The oars flew and broke as the large ship passed over the debris of the boat.

The captain jumped back as the wheel began contorting itself to knock him. A yard plunged on him like a tentacle.

"Hang on!"

The King jumped on the stern deck, his sword unsheathed. He hacked violently at the yard, which recoiled before plunging again on the captain. The bearded man dived and grabbed a cutlass while shouting to his men. In a few seconds a vicious fight was engaged between the slithering yard and the men. The large beam of wood managed to knock two men overboard before the concerted effort of the others broke its end, leaving the part still attached to the mast flailing uselessly above them. The entire fight had not lasted more than a minute.

The Doctor walked cautiously to the broken pieces of the yard that had fallen on the bridge.

"Be careful, Doctor!" the captain panted.

The Doctor acknowledged with a nod before crouching near the large splinters. He waved his screwdriver over them, grimaced, then picked up the nearest one. The piece of wood remained inert in his hand.

"It's dead" he said, standing up. "Just like a human body. What you break dies. And if you break it badly enough, it dies as a whole. Just like the lifeboat you sunk."

The men joined him on the bridge, still panting from the fight. There were only a handful of sailors now along with the royal couple.

"I'm sorry Captain", the Doctor said. "I was wrong. That thing is not beautiful. Well, yes it is, but it is also very evil."

"And do you know what to do now, Doctor?"

The Doctor stood up, and tilted his head sideways, loudly cracking the bones from his neck.

"We are going to kill the ship."

"Scuttling her, you mean?"

"There are not enough of us to successfully damage it before it gets all of us. I suspect its primary concern is to reach the land, and that's why it's using most of its yards to carry the sails instead of attacking us, but it probably would not hesitate to do it if we were to present a sufficient threat." The Time Lord looked around. "The weather is not good. It would only take a little more to turn it into a full storm, strong enough to sink the ship."

The people around him gasped.

"But don't worry, I've got a way to get us all out of here. Which does not involve the lifeboats. Trust me on this."

"He's right", Amy said faithfully. "We have seen worse and lived."

"But how can you be sure that the storm will come? Nobody can control the weather!"

Amy caught the King and Queen exchanging another of their glances. The Doctor grinned.

"Fortunately, I have a few trinkets that can help."

The Doctor rushed to the TARDIS, with Amy in tow. He barged into the console room and disappeared through one of the endless corridors connected to it.

"Doctor!" Amy shouted from the console. "What are you going to do exactly?"

"Creating a sound wave funnel to form a vortex. In normal weather this would be hard, but with this storm forming…" There was the distant sound of heavy things being moved around as the Doctor's explanation was interrupted by grunts of effort. "Bingo! I knew I still had it!"

The Doctor reappeared from the opposite corridor, carrying a large piece of equipment that looked like a long column at the top of which a satellite dish had been affixed. Various plugs and bits of wire were connected to it.

"Ultrasound waveform static amplifier!" he announced, proudly flourishing the curious object. "Acquired some time ago at a yard sale in the Gagrack system. It should be powered by a cold fusion reactor but I'm pretty sure I can rig it to work with this 9V battery. We only need it to start the funnel anyway."

The Doctor strolled out of the TARDIS and began setting up the strange apparatus in the middle of the bridge.

"You seem to know what to do, Doctor" the King said, while the captain and the remaining sailors were looking cautiously around them. "What can we do to help?"

"Nothing. Well… maybe fight the ship a little. Because when I start this device, the storm will locally increase around us. Actually it may even create a whirlpool. You know, like the Maelstrom? It should be around these parts. Maybe you have seen it?"

"Doctor!" hushed Amy impatiently.

"Of course, of course. Well, I hope the ship does not realise what happens before it's too late. If it does, it will try to shut that thing down and we will need to delay it."

"And if we succeed?"

"Oh, then the ship will sink", the Doctor said with confidence. "We will simply need to all run to my box, and I will get you all to safety. Nothing to worry about."

The Doctor began working on the amplifier, rewiring it quickly, switching various levers and applying his sonic screwdriver seemingly randomly. The King was still looking at him intently.

"Who are you exactly, Doctor?"

"Just a man with a box. And a companion. Where is she? Oh there you are, Pond! Lovely Amy Pond. Could you please bring me the oscillation enhancer? It's the red-green thingy that looks like a device, on the console. Or maybe on the ground. Or somewhere in the TARDIS anyway. You will know when you find it" he added, as Amy sighed theatrically before striding to the TARDIS.

"Your… companion told me you have done this sort of thing before."

"Well" the Doctor said, working to connect a plug to an uncooperative wire, "not exactly this, but I've had to handle a few unusual situations like this one, yeah. A living ship is new, though, although I once met a charming tree woman and a very interesting forest."

The King moved closer. His wife had joined them.

"My daughter, Doctor is… special. I think she could use your help. We could use all the help we could get, really."

"Is she involved in strange ships?" the Doctor asked absent-mindedly, grunting to connect the wire.

"No, she has… unusual abilities. Abilities that she can't control. If your device really can control the weather, then it would…"

"It does not control the weather. It will simply… hmpf… there!" The Doctor finally managed to connect the wire and sealed the connection with the sonic screwdriver. "It will simply create a funnel of increased pressure connecting with the clouds and…"

"Yes, Doctor, thank you. What I meant is, if you have the knowledge to create a storm and battle a living ship, maybe you could really help our daughter. It would mean a lot to our family."

The King straightened up as Amy returned, slightly out of breath.

"There!" she shouted, dropping a little object in the Doctor's lap. "I hope this is what you wanted!"

"No, no, no, not at all!" shouted the Doctor, taking the piece and looking it over. "I asked you for an oscillation enhancer, and this is…" he turned it over "an oscillation enhancer that I was holding upside down, so it should also work." He plugged the piece on the larger device on which he had been working. "There!" he said triumphantly, working the sonic screwdriver over his apparatus. "Now I only have to switch this on and the big bad ship will be taken care of."

"What will happen exactly, Doctor?" Amy asked.

"Well the weather should become really horrible, until the ship is wrecked and sinks, at which point we should all retreat in the TARDIS for a warm cup of tea and talk about your daughter's problems" he added, looking up at the King. "Really simple, really. Actually you should already board the TARDIS so that you will be ready when the ship sinks."

"You said the ship could try to stop you!"

"We are not leaving you now, Doctor" the King said firmly. "If this thing can indeed spread to everything wooden over land, it is our duty to ensure that it is stopped."

"And you will have to kill me to make me leave my ship when there are still people aboard" shouted the captain, "even if she has become some kind of murderous monstrosity."

"Very touching. I love you humans" the Doctor said. He flicked the screwdriver once more. "Then you'd better grab onto something, as the show is on!"

The large device began humming. For a while nothing more happened, as everybody looked on with bated breath.

"How long will it take to warm up, Doctor?" Amy asked.

"It should not need to…" the Doctor kicked the apparatus violently. The hum began suddenly higher. "Now it's really on!"

The ship rocked as the wind suddenly increased, distending the sails. The waves began rising higher and higher, soon reaching the deck that was washed with foam. Lightning crackled in the clouds overhead, as the distant rumble of thunder was heard above the increased din of the sea.

But the ship kept its course, slicing through the higher waves, its sails orienting on their own to take advantage of the wind.

"I'll amp it up!" shouted the Doctor, activating the screwdriver. "Hold on!"

The ship rocked, throwing the passengers around. A wave crashed on the deck, spraying everyone with foam.

Suddenly, the word went white as lightning struck the stern mast. The large beam of wood snapped neatly in the middle and the top half fell in the sea, still entangled with its rigging. The ship violently leaned to the side.

"There it comes!" shouted the captain over the noise.

A monstrous wave was now forming in front of them. It rose above the top of the remaining masts as the ship, still entangled in the broken mast, was presenting its side to the rising wall of water.

There was a long groaning of wood as the central mast bent over, its yards uncoiling like a gigantic hand that came down on the broken mast and raised it above water. At the last second, the ship was able to turn to face the crashing wave.

Water washed over the deck. Amy clung for her life at a halyard as the sea rushed past her. She glimpsed the Doctor, desperately holding on to its apparatus, and heard people shout.

The wave passed. Amy opened her eyes on the bridge that was almost on the same level as the sea around it. She saw that the King and Queen were still holding near the Doctor, with the help of the captain and two of his men. She could not see anyone else.

But the ship was still moving, still managing to take advantage of the strong wind to plunge onwards. Its central mast and its yards were now ripping the broken mast from its stump, throwing bits overboard.

"That wave should have sunk us!" shouted the captain. "This cursed ship is fighting against the sea as no normal ship could! What can we do?"

Amy could hear the whistling of the sonic screwdriver over the noise, then the voice of the Doctor.

"Let's change tactics!"

The drone of the device changed. Amy felt the sea calm somehow as the wind decreased. But the ship was still picking speed. Risking an eye above the railing, she discovered a large whirlpool forming in front of the ship.

"Doctor!" she shouted, crawling back to him. "Is that you doing this?"

"Yes!" They were all gathering near the Doctor and his apparatus. "Since it can resist a storm, I've reversed the funnel to create a vortex in the water. It should not be able to resist this. When we are at the bottom, I will cancel the vortex, and the water will collapse on the ship. You should all take shelter inside the…"

"Careful!"

A yard was coiling in their direction. The captain jumped on his feet and swung his cutlass at the incoming piece of wood, soon imitated by his two men and the King.

"It has understood that we are doing this! We must protect the amplifier!"

The men began battling once more the beams of wood swinging at them. Amy looked overboard and realised that the ship was now trying to head away from the vortex.

The red-haired girl jumped to her feet and ran to the stern deck. Bracing herself, she grabbed the wheel and heaved on it, trying to change the heading of the ship, while remaining careful of any sign of aggression from the large piece of wood. She grunted with effort, barely managing to move it, fighting the inertia of the ship as much as the rudder itself.

"Hold on!"

Amy saw the Queen jump at her side, grab the wheel and push along her. She was surprised at how strong the frail woman proved to be, as she felt the large wheel finally giving in, inch by inch.

And suddenly the ship tilted violently. Amy saw the sea disappear on one side as the vessel plunged into the vortex, making her lose her footing.

"Careful!"

Amy managed to push the Queen away as the wheel suddenly recoiled, taking advantage of their loss of balance, and threw both of them on the deck. She looked up to see the wheel plunge on them, its handles turning to point toward them.

Sliding desperately, she managed to reach a piece of wood that had been washed on the deck, and raised it upwards, managing to deflect the wheel as it was about to slam down on them. She heard the Queen grunt with effort as the dark-haired woman also tried to hold the thing back.

She heard a shout, as someone jumped on the deck near them. She recognised the King, who began to hack frantically at the wheel with his sword.

Amy suddenly felt the piece of wood she had been holding twist in her hands. It was not much, more like the last spasm of a wounded animal, but it was enough to make her lose her grip. The wheel suddenly closed on her, but, hampered by the desperate blows of the King, only managed to swat her aside. She glided on the drenched deck and came to a halt near the stairs leading down to the main bridge.

Amy glanced at the situation below. Only the captain and the Doctor remained on the deck now, the former desperately hacking at the yards coiling above them, the latter jumping around his amplifier and waving his screwdriver around.

Amy looked up, and saw the sea above her. She realised that the ship was now deep inside the gigantic whirlpool as she could now see water in all directions.

"Keep going" yelled the Doctor. "Only a little more and we will be deep enough for…"

Amy saw the central mast begin to bend. Before she could muster her breath for a shout, the large trunk had coiled itself like a gigantic tentacle and was descending on the Doctor and his device. She saw the captain lunge toward the Doctor.

Amy scrambled up, shouting a warning. The mast, its sails and yards balled up like a gigantic fist, thumped the deck, sending a tremor through the whole ship that knocked her down again. There was a cry and the sound of wood and metal breaking.

The ship rocked. The mast uncoiled upward, extending its sails again in an attempt to stabilise itself. Amy half rolled half crawled to where the mast had struck.

The amplifier of the Doctor was broken in two, its parts sizzling and emitting an occasional spark and smoke. The captain was lying next to it. He had managed to push the Doctor away, and the tall Time Lord was scrambling to his feet a dozen feet away. He stood up, his whistling sonic screwdriver raised over his head, and ran to the captain's side, crestfallen.

"You did not have to…" he began.

"The captain… goes down… with the ship" the large man managed to whisper hoarsely. "Sorry your Majesty. Good luck, Doctor."

Amy raised her head just in time to see a yard coming at them. She grabbed the captain's discarded cutlass and lunged at it. The shock resounded through her whole body but she managed to deflect the large beam of wood.

"I can maintain the vortex with the screwdriver for a few seconds" shouted the Doctor. "We are deep enough now, time to leave!"

His screwdriver still raised, the Time Lord began retreating toward the TARDIS. Amy followed him, the cutlass raised above her head in defiance of the threatening yards.

"It's okay now", shouted the Doctor to the royal couple, still struggling with the wheel on the stern deck. "Let's leave!"

The King and the Queen jumped back from the wheel, and began to cautiously move toward the stairs descending from the deck.

The ship shuddered. Amy saw the big mast plunge again, this time outside the ship, its sail extended. The ship angled upward as the mast plunged into the water like a gigantic paddle, and began climbing up the vortex.

The King and Queen exchanged a glance, then rushed back to the wheel. Their combined efforts managed to overcome the resistance of the rudder. With a sinister creaking of wood, the large vessel turned back toward the bottom of the vortex, despite the mast attempts to cling to the water.

"Come!" the Doctor yelled. "I can't maintain the vortex any longer!"

"The ship will climb up if we don't keep it going down!" the King panted, desperately pushing along the wheel with his wife.

Amy heard the sound of the sonic screwdriver rise in pitch. A spark flew from the glowing stick.

"The vortex will collapse any time soon" the Doctor shouted. "You will not have time to reach the TARDIS!"

Amy started toward the stern deck, but the Doctor caught her hand. "No! You won't be able to reach them in time!"

The Doctor locked gazes across the deck with the King. The monarch looked at his wife. Amy saw the Queen nod imperceptibly, her body still arched against the wheel along with her husband's.

The large ship creaked, trying to escape from the whirlpool. But the rudder held by the royal couple was keeping it in a downward plunge, even with the desperate efforts of its mast.

"Doctor!" the King shouted above the din of the rushing water and the creaking of wood. "If you escape this, please visit our daughters in Arendelle! Tell them to speak to each other! Tell our eldest to open her door!"

"There has to be another way!" the Doctor yelled. "We only have seconds, maybe I can…"

"Tell them we love them!" the Queen shouted between two grunts of efforts.

"They only have each other now! There is no need for our eldest to conceal from her sister any more! She must tell her about…"

The whistling of the sonic screwdriver died.

The spinning of the walls of water around them slowed down.

Darkness fell on the ship. Amy looked up at the opening of the vortex above them. It was becoming smaller.

Behind her, the Doctor was desperately shaking the sonic screwdriver.

Her eyes stinging with salty water, Amy saw the Queen and King let go of the wheel and embrace tightly.

Then there was only the sound of water rushing and wood splintering as the vortex collapsed on the ship.

* * *

Amy woke up on the floor of the TARDIS console, coughing and spluttering. She remembered feeling the Doctor pull her back strongly before a wave hit her head first.

"Ah, Pond. There you are. Take your time. Good thing I closed the TARDIS doors in time, or we would have taken the sea with us."

The Doctor was standing at his console, looking more serious than usual.

"Doctor? The people on the ship… the captain, the King and Queen…"

"There was nothing I could have done" the Doctor said sadly. "We could only escape because we were standing right next to the TARDIS, and even then it was a close call. The water pressure was enough to crush a ship…"

He swung some more levers.

"But at least we can do what they asked us, right? Asking their daughters to… speak?"

"Already on it, Pond!" the Doctor exclaimed, his usual cheerfulness returning for a second. "I'm good at making people speak! Well I'm better at speaking while they listen, but I can do the make speaking thing." He switched some more levers. "Arendelle" he mused thoughtfully. "The name rings a bell. I wonder if I've been there before."

The TARDIS central column rose and fell with a low hum.

* * *

Elsa drew a deep breath. They would be back soon. A delay of a few days was not surprising with this weather. There was nothing to be afraid of.

Trying to take her mind of the waiting, the princess removed her glove and concentrated. The miniature ice castle appeared under her hand and rose from the ground. It was getting easier and easier to do. She wondered if she would be able to do a life-size version of it one day.

There was a knock on the door. Elsa jumped back and rushed to the door, then stopped. Her parents never knocked on the door without calling her at the same time. Trying to quell the tremor in her voice, she asked who it was. She recognised Kai's voice, saying he brought news about her parents.

She listened wordlessly through the door, as he told about a storm, broken wood washed ashore, and lack of hope about finding any survivors. There were some more words, maybe questions, but she did not hear them any more.

The miniature castle shattered as ice filled the room.

* * *

Anna was sitting on a bench in the courtyard, trying to catch her breath. Her bicycle lay on the ground at her feet. It was definitely funnier to ride in the courtyard than on the stairs, but a bit more tiring, especially when trying to overtake the birds that flew by.

She looked around her. The air was cold, but there was no chance of snow before a month at least. And the sky was still far too bright to see if it would be awake this night or not.

She saw a man walk slowly toward her. He wore the uniform of a seaman, and she remembered seeing him a few times with her parents. She looked up to him, smiling, as she tried to remember his name and rank.

She listened to him quietly, politely, as he talked about rescue missions and patrolling for days until no hope remained, and that he was sorry. Then he saluted her and slowly walked away.

The princess was still sitting on the bench as the night fell, still wearing a little uncomprehending half smile, her eyes and cheeks glistening brightly in the night as they caught the light from the stars above.

Snow was falling slowly from the cloudless, dead sky.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** : This is the longest chapter I've written so far (and it ended up being a bit sadder that I had originally planned). I did not split it as I wanted the story to be self-contained. It's also my first attempt at writing a Who-like story.

The captain appears a few seconds in the movie, helping the Queen aboard the ship. I needed someone to fill the role of the authority figure who does not trust the Doctor at first, before sacrificing himself helping him.


	4. Hello goodbye

The three knocks echoed loudly into the cavernous space of the TARDIS console room. The Doctor raised his head. Lost in his dark thoughts, he had not even realised he had landed. His hand hovered over the controls, as he seriously considered taking off without even checking what was outside.

 _It had only knocked three times._

Finally, the Doctor mournfully turned to the scanner screen. His hearts skipped a beat as he saw a young blond woman appear on them.

 _Still not over her, Doctor?_

It was not even the right colour. The young woman's hair were more platinum than blond. She wore a light blue dress, and was looking expectantly, and a bit shyly, at the TARDIS.

The Doctor frowned while looking at the readings flashing on the screen. Eventually he took a decision and walked up slowly to the door. The young woman backed up in surprise when he opened.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were the Doctor…"

"I am the Doctor."

She frowned.

"I'm sorry, then… I knew a man also called the Doctor, and he came out of a blue box just like this one… But he did not look like anything like you."

"Must have been the next guy, then" said the Doctor, smirking sadly. "But it's still me. I can change a lot from time to times… Only, I have probably not been him yet."

The woman looked at him uncomprehendingly.

"My life is… complicated. I don't always meet people the first time they meet me. It's a bit of wibbly…" He stopped. He hated this expression now. It made time sound like a game, whose rules he could twist to his own liking. He had found the hard way that it was not the case.

The woman looked at him quizzically for a few seconds, then appeared to reach a decision.

"Well, I wanted to thank him. Maybe you could pass him the message." She straightened up. "I'm Queen Elsa of Arendelle. I've met the Doctor when I was younger, and he was… kind to me."

"Really? What did he do?" _What will I be doing in my next life?_

The woman hesitated.

"Not much actually… He simply was there at a time when I was… lonely. He was enthusiastic about… what I could do, while I was frightened by it at the time. He… talked a bit about it." She paused. "Actually I think I was able to help him a little." She smiled. "And I think he was the same man who built snowmen for my sister, when we were younger. This meant a lot to her, and to me."

The Doctor arched an eyebrow.

"Snowmen?"

The woman was about to answer when she was interrupted by someone shouting. A few seconds later, another young woman appeared beside her. She looked a lot like her, maybe a few years younger, and with strawberry blond hair and a rosier complexion.

"That's the box!" she exclaimed. "The box where the doctor… doctor… I never remember who he was called…" She looked at the Doctor dubiously. "Have you met the man with the bow tie? Or the nice red-haired woman… She was called…"

The Doctor raised his hands hurriedly.

"Please, no spoilers about my future self." He looked at their puzzled glances. "Listen, I really should be going now. I don't like to meet people in the wrong order. There is always the risk of a paradox". _And I don't like people knowing more about me than I do._

"Oh, are you going to make your box disappear? I will fetch Olaf, he will love this!"

The younger woman departed running. The blonde woman looked at her go lovingly before turning back to the Doctor.

"I'm not sure I understand what you said but, if you know the man we are talking about… please thank him for us. He and the women with him were kind to us at a time where we needed it." She smiled. "He even encouraged me to practice my… abilities. I'm not sure I would have been able to use them so easily when I needed them if I had not followed his advice."

The Doctor cocked his head, interested despite himself.

"What sort of abilities?"

The woman hesitated a fraction of a second.

"This", she said, twirling her fingers.

The Doctor started as something white fell on his shoulder. He turned to look as snow gently fell on him and the TARDIS. He caught a snowflake on his fingers and examined it intently.

"It's snow!" he said, his face lightening with a childlike smile for the first time. "Real snow! How are you doing that?"

The woman smiled.

"I always could. I was simply very afraid to use it."

The Doctor thought about taking out his sonic screwdriver to analyse her, then decided against it. He was not in the mood for over-analysing things today. At least, it appeared to be real, non-threatening snow. He had had enough of sentient water under any state for a while.

"Sometimes it's good to be afraid of what you can do" he mused, shifting his weight from one foot to another. "It can stop you from going too far."

The woman looked at him quizzically.

"And sometimes you simply need to trust people and yourself" she countered eventually. "I spent my life fearing to hurt my sister, and I did just that because of this fear."

"Was she the young woman who was here earlier? She seemed fine."

"Yes, she is. It all turned out all right in the end." She smiled warmly. "I simply had to remember how much I loved her."

The Doctor shrugged, smiling forlornly.

"Good for you, then." He stepped back. "I should be going now."

"Wait!" The woman held out a hand. "When you meet the… other Doctor. Could you give him this? As a thank you."

The Doctor's eyes widened as he saw ice form on the palm of the woman's hand. In a few seconds, it coalesced into a perfect replica of the TARDIS.

"Thank you", he said, gingerly picking up the TARDIS-cicle. He whipped out his glasses and looked it over. "Impressive" he said eventually. "Thank you" he said again, smiling broadly.

The Doctor slowly retreated into the TARDIS, smiling at the woman. Before he closed the door he heard voices approaching and recognised the voice of the younger woman, along with another, nasal voice, complaining that it was simply a big box. He could not hold back a little mischievous smile.

The last of the Time Lord walked slowly back to his console and rested the little ice TARDIS on it, noting with interest that the sculpture did not seem to be melting. He absent-mindedly punched a few controls on his console.

 _Still impressing vulnerable little girls, Doctor? When will you ever stop?_

He breathed deeply and slammed back the lever commanding the TARDIS take off, looking at the central column pulsing as the sounds of the TARDIS engines echoed around him.

Maybe now was the time to confront what Time had in store for him.

As the TARDIS took him away, the Doctor realised he had been too distraught to properly commit to memory the name of the young woman. Queen Elsa of… something that sounded like a name of a fairy tale, or a Scandinavian fishing settlement. Hopefully he would remember it eventually.

* * *

High above the clouds, something was flying along the winds.

It had been in the wood, but it had not been able to really control what it did. The wood was too raw, too savage to properly command, little more than a feral beast. Then it had been imprisoned in ice, a forgotten icicle in a frozen bedroom. It had remained there for years, perceiving, learning, changing.

The country had been thawed, and the icicle that had imprisoned it had joined the ice in the sky to form a giant snowflake that had exploded in thousands of little flakes. It was in one of them now.

It was little more than information by now. And intelligence.

As it drifted along the winds toward the British Isles, the snowflake carried with it memories of lonely children, knowledge of magical snow, ideas of animated snowmen and glimpses of people turning to ice statues.

And a ravenous desire to learn more.

* * *

 **Author's Notes** : And now it's complete. In case you are wondering, the Doctor in this chapter is the Tenth Doctor, shortly after the events of _Waters of Mars_.  
The ending is a reference to the Christmas episode _The Snowmen_. I always had fun with the surface similarities between this episode and _Frozen_.

This story now has a sequel, _Am I a good girl?_ , which is longer and more action-packed, and full of wibbly-wobbly timey stuff. You can give it a try if you want.  
I have a further sequel in mind, but it's only at the planning stages for now.

Anyway, thanks for reading. I hope you liked it.


End file.
